Early figures pointed to 100,000 pre-orders during the first day and a total of 300,000 pre-orders after the first week Apple and its carrier partners began accepting pre-orders. Local residents cannot buy a phone without having made a pre-order purchase, so there aren’t any lines or crowds this year. Remember the rioting that occurred when Apple launched the iPhone 4S?

Shanghai Daily is estimating that Apple will sell 20,000 iPhone 5 units in Shanghai through three local Apple Store locations and from both China Unicom and China Telecom outlets. China Mobile, however, is the world’s largest wireless carrier, and Apple has yet to launch the iPhone 5 on its network.